Shredding machine

ABSTRACT

A portable shredder has a horizontally elongated wheeled housing with an inlet opening at one end of the housing and a discharge opening at the other end of the housing and a shredding drum within the housing intermediate the openings. The axis of the drum is inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal. A plurality of shredding or beater blades are attached to a motor driven shaft which is coaxially journalled within the drum. An adjustable charging chute which can be used as a ramp for sweeping material into the inlet opening or as a gravity feed charging hopper is hingedly connected to the housing adjacent to the inlet opening. Material to be shredded is dropped into the inlet opening and is then shredded by the shredding blades. The shredded material drops or is blown out the discharge opening onto the ground or into a storage receptacle.

llnite 10? Koturov States Patent 1 1 Dec. 30, 1975 Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation of Ser. No. 386,690, Aug. 8, 1973,

abandoned.

[52] U.S.Cl 241/55; 241/10l.7; 241/186 R; 241/188 R [51] Int. Cl. B02C 13/14 [58] Field of Search ..241/37.5,55,101.7,186 R, 241/186.1,188 R 3,727,847 4/1973 Nelson 24l/l0l.7 X

Primary Examiner-Granville Y. Custer, Jr. Assistant Examiner-l-loward N. Goldberg Attorney, Agent, or Firm.loseph P. House, Jr.

[57] ABSTRACT A portable shredder has a horizontally elongated wheeled housing with an inlet opening at one end of the housing and a discharge opening at the other end of the housing and a shredding drum within the housing intermediate the openings. The axis of the drum is inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal. A plurality of shredding or beater blades are attached to a motor driven shaft which is coaxially journalled within the drum. An adjustable charging chute which can be used as a ramp for sweeping material into the inlet opening or as a gravity feed charging hopper is hingedly connected to the housing adjacent to the inlet opening. Material to be shredded is dropped into the inlet opening and is then shredded by the shredding blades. The shredded material drops or is blown out the discharge opening onto the ground or into a storage receptacle.

16 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures US, Patent Dec. 30, 1975 Sheet 1 of2 3,929,236

W I" "I I I US. Patnt Dec. 30, 1975 Sheet 2 of2 3,929,236

SHREDDING MACHINE CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation of my copending US. Pat. application Ser. No. 386,690 filed Aug. 8, 1973, now abandoned.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to machines for shredding, composting or otherwise comminuting waste material and particularly organic material such as leaves, twigs, garbage and the like. The principal objects of this invention are to provide a novel shredding machine which is easier to use, has a lower profile and is more effective than those heretofore known in the art. Other objects of the invention are to provide a shredding machine which is simple and sturdy in structure and relatively inexpensive in cost.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The above-noted objects are achieved by providing a horizontally elongated wheeled housing with an inlet opening at one end of the housing and a discharge opening at the other end of the housing and a shredding drum within the housing intermediate the openings. The axis of the drum is inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal. A plurality of shredding or beater blades are attached to a motor driven shaft which is coaxially journalled within the drum. An adjustable charging chute which can be used as a ramp for sweeping material into the inlet opening or as a gravity feed charging hopper is hingedly connected to the housing adjacent to the inlet opening. Material to be shredded is dropped into the inlet opening and is then shredded by the shredding blades. The shredded material drops or is blown out the discharge opening onto the ground or into a storage receptacle.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a perspective view of one illustrative embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a front view of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 with one side of the housing being cut away to expose interior details.

FIG. 4 is a rear view of the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1-3 with the rear wall being cut away to expose interior details.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Although the disclosure hereof is detailed and exact to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, the physical embodiments herein disclosed merely exemplify the invention which may be embodied in other specific structure. The scope of the invention is defined in the claims appended hereto.

The drawings show one embodiment of the invention which is specifically adapted for shredding leaves and the like. Referring to FIG. 1, this embodiment comprises the outer housing which is movably supported on the rear end by wheels 12 and is fixedly supported on the front end by a flat bottom 14. A pair of handles 16 is attached to the front side walls of housing 10 so that the front end can be picked up to wheel the device from place to place. A small internal combustion en- 2 gine 18 is mounted on top of the housing 10 to drive the shredder mechanism, which is located within the housing 10, and a clutch actuating lever 20 projects from the side of housing 10 for controlling the engagement of the engine 18 with the shredder mechanism.

Referring to FIG. 2, the shredder mechanism ineludes a hollow, cylindrical shredder drum 22 which is mounted within housing 10, .a beater mechanism including a shaft 24 which is co axially journalled within shredder drum 22, and three shredder blades, 26, 28 and 30 which are angularly spaced from each other and are attached at axially spaced locations along shaft 24. The shaft 24 is journalled to :a supporting bracket 32 which is attached to the sides of the drum 22 and extends across the bottom thereof as best shown in FIG. 4. The supporting bracket 32 is angled downwardly on both sides from the bottom of drum 22 and has an axially spaced cross brace 34 connected thereacross (see FIG. 4) to help support the shaft 24. A drive pulley 36 is attached to shaft 24 immediately above the cross brace 34.

The output of engine 18 is developed as rotation of an output pulley 38 (see FIG. 2) which is coupled to drive pulley 36 by a flexible drive belt 40. The drive belt 40 passes over a fixed guide pulley 42 (see FIG. 4) and a movable guide pulley 44 which serves as a clutch for engaging and disengaging the drive belt 40 with the pulleys 36 and 38. Movable pulley 44 is rotatably mounted on a plate 46 which is movable between a position in which pulley 44 applies pressure to drive belt 40 so that it engages pulleys 36 and 38 and an opposite position in which pulley 44 allows belt 40 to go slack so that it disengages from pulleys 36 and 38. Plate 46 is moved between its two positions by clutch actuating lever 20 and is maintained in the selected position by an expansion spring 48, which draws plate 46 either upwardly or downwardly depending on the plates position.

An annular inlet spout 50 is attached to the upper end of shredder drum 22 and projects downwardly therewithin. The inlet opening provided by spout 50 is intersected by the axis of beater shaft 24. The outside diameter of spout 50 is smaller than the inside diameter of drum 22 so that an annular air space 52 is left between the outside surface of spout -50 and the inside surface of drum 22. Air space 52 permits the air within the upper portion of drum 22 to rotate in a cyclonic manner. The lower edge 54 of spout 50 is sufficiently spaced from the nearest shredder blade 26 to provide a recirculation zone 56 in which the material dropped into inlet spout 50 can be recirculated above the shredding blades until it has been completely shredded thereby. An antirotational stop 51 is welded to the side of spout 50 to prevent rotation of sticks or'twigs that project beyond spout 50.

In this embodiment of the invention, the lowermost shredding blade 30 also functions as an impeller, as it is bent at its end 31 to provide a. moderate exhaust draft for moving the shredded material axially downwardly away from the shredding blades and toward the discharge end of the housing 10. An elliptical outlet conduit 58 is attached around the bottom of drum 22 and extends substantially horizontally within housing 10 and terminates in a lipped discharge throat 60 which is preferably adapted to receive the open end of a collection bag 62. The bottom of drum 22 is open to provide a discharge opening intersected by the axis of beater shaft 24. The outlet conduit 58 is slotted in its upper surface at 64 to permit entry of the drive belt 40 therethrough. In the operation of this embodiment, the shredded material is carried along the bottom of conduit 58 and into the bottom of bag 62 by the exhaust draft from the bent shredding blade 30. The exhaust draft then circulates around the top of bag 62 and exits through the slots 64 in the top of outlet conduit 58.

The axis of shredder drum 22 and shaft 24 is tilted at an acute angle of approximately 45 to the vertical to reduce the charging height and to allow leaves and other input material to be conveniently swept into inlet spout 50 up a ramp or chute 66 which is pivotally connected to the inlet spout 50 on hinge 67. The tilting of the drum 22 elevates portions of its discharge opening to promote discharge of shredded material from the drum. Chute 66 has upstanding sides 68 and is movable between a lowered ramp position which is illustrated in FIG. 2 and two raised chute positions, one of which is illustrated in FIG. 1. A rectangularly shaped brace 70 is pivotally attached to the lower front end of chute 66 on hinge 72 and is shaped at its lower corners to provide feet 74 to engage in socket openings 76 and 78 in bottom 14 to support chute 66 in different positions above bottom 14. When the lower corners 74 are engaged in openings 76, chute 66 is supported in an approximately horizontal position. When the lower corners 74 are engaged in openings 78, chute 66 is supported in a slightly raised position as shown in FIG. 1 for gravity discharge of deposited material into hopper 22.

The top of housing is extended at 80 over a portion of the inlet spout 50 to partially cover the same and a hood 82 having a hinged inlet flap 84 covers a further portion of the inlet spout 50. The hinged inlet flap 84 swings both inwardly and outwardly and is dimensioned to partially close the inlet opening when chute 66 is in its upper most position as shown in FIG. 1. [n this position, the inlet flap 84 will swing inwardly under the pressure of leaves, twigs or other input material but will block return flow and will prevent the twigs, etc., from being thrown back out the inlet opening after being struck by the shredding blades.

In the lowermost position of chute 66, as shown in FIG. 2, the inlet flap 84 does not completely close the inlet opening, but it does cover that part of the opening which is directly above the inlet spout 50, hence still protects against twigs or other hard materials from being thrown out the inlet opening. Articles which are thrown from the shredding blades out the inlet spout 50 must emerge at such an angle that they will strike either the top housing 80, the inlet hood 82, or the inlet flap 84. Flap 84 also is in the path of hand movement into the drum and reminds the operator of this danger.

The shredded material moves at a lower speed axially than it would if it was discharged radially or centrifugally. Hence its exit velocity is low enough to minimize the likelihood for puncture of the bag 62.

The slant axis of shaft 24 and drum 22 brings the lower lip of charging spout 50 close to the ground level so that debris is not lifted very high in sweeping it up the ramp 66. Concurrently the upper edge of the bottom of drum is elevated, thus to provide the discharge path into bag 62. Accordingly, the profile of the machine is kept low, yet all the rotating parts are well within the housing for safety reasons. The flow path of debris is straighter than it would be if the axis were vertical, and less work is required to process debris through the machine.

The slot or hole 64 in the top of outlet conduit 58 in FIG. 2 is advantageously located to exhuast air from the bag 62 within which dust and debris is trapped and collected and is isolated from contact with the operator.

The illustrated embodiment is adapted to convert various items of vegetable or organic matter such as garbage, leaves, twigs and other vegetation into finely chopped discrete particles which can be composted or otherwise easily disposed of or utilized as humus. Thus this embodiment has high utility on suburban home sites and small estates which generate substantial quantities of such vegetation.

I claim:

1. A shredding machine comprising a hollow cylindrical shredder drum, a shaft coaxially journalled within said drum, at least one shredding blade attached to said shaft and projecting radially therefrom, means for rotating said shaft and said shredding blade, an inlet opening at the upper end of said drum and intersected by the axis of said shaft, a discharge opening at the lower end of the drum and intersected by the axis of said shaft, said shaft having no blade closer to the input opening than said one blade, said one shredding blade being spaced from the inlet opening to provide a material recirculation zone in the drum above the blade, the axis of said drum and said shaft being inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal whereby the drum is tilted to elevate portions of the discharge opening and promote discharge of shredded material from the drum.

2. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising collecting means below said shredding blade for receiving shredded material.

3. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising a plurality of shredding blades attached to said shaft, said shredding blades being angularly spaced from one another and being axially spaced from one another along the length of said shaft.

4. A shredding machine as defined in claim 3 wherein the ends .of at least one of said shredding blades are bent in such a way as to create a downdraft through the lower portion of said shredder drum to move shredded material away from the bottom of said drum.

5. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising a charging chute hingedly supported near said inlet opening for directing material thereinto.

6. A shredding machine as defined in claim 5 and further comprising a housing about said shredder drum and said shaft, the top of said housing extending over a portion of said inlet opening, a hood attached to the top of said housing and extending over a further portion of said inlet opening, and an inlet flap hingedly connected to said hood and extending over an additional portion of said inlet opening.

7. A shredding machine as defined in claim 5 and further comprising means for selectively supporting said charging chute in a first position in which the charging chute extends downwardly from said hinged support in a ramp position and a second position in which the charging chute extends upwardly from said hinged support.

8. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising a discharge conduit coupled to the bottom of said shredding drum and a collecting bag coupled to the end of said discharge conduit.

9. A shredding machine as defined in claim 8 in combination with a horizontally elongated housing which encloses said drum and discharge conduit, wheels at one end of the housing and a loading chute at the other end of the housing.

10. The shredding machine of claim 9 in which the said axis inclines toward the loading chute and away from the discharge conduit.

11. A portable shredder comprising a horizontally elongated wheeled housing, an input opening at one end of the housing and a discharge opening at the other end of the housing, a shredding drum within the housing and intermediate said openings, said drum having an uppermost input opening and a lowermost discharge opening, said drum having its axis inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal whereby to dispose its input opening toward the input opening of the housing and dispose its discharge opening toward the discharge opening of the housing, a beater rotatable within said drum on an axis intersecting the input and discharge openings of the drum and means for impelling shredded material toward said discharge openings, said beater being spaced sufficiently from the input opening to 6 provide a material recirculating zone in the drum above the beater.

12. The shredder of claim 11 in which the beater includes a shaft coaxial with the drum and radially extending blades, and an annular inlet spout at the input opening of the drum and extending toward the beater.

13. The shredder of claim 11 :in which said housing is provided with an adjustable charging chute at its input opening.

14. The shredder of claim 13 in which said charging chute has a pivotal mounting on which it is swingable between a downwardly inclined ramp position for sweeping material from ground level up into the drum and an elevated position in which it receives material delivered to it from a height above ground level.

15. The shredder of claim 11 in which the discharge openings of the housing and drum are connected by a discharge conduit.

16. The shredder of claim 111 in which a collection bag is releasably attached to the discharge opening. 

1. A shredding machine comprising a hollow cylindrical shredder drum, a shaft coaxially journalled within said drum, at least one shredding blade attached to said shaft and projecting radially therefrom, means for rotating said shaft and said shredding blade, an inlet opening at the upper end of said drum and intersected by the axis of said shaft, a discharge opening at the lower end of the drum and intersected by the axis of said shaft, said shaft having no blade closer to the input opening than said one blade, said one shredding blade being spaced from the inlet opening to provide a material recirculation zone in the drum above the blade, the axis of said drum and said shaft being inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal whereby the drum is tilted to elevate portions of the discharge opening and promote discharge of shredded material from the drum.
 2. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising collecting means below said shredding blade for receiving shredded material.
 3. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising a plurality of shredding blades attached to said shaft, said shredding blades being angularly spaced from one another and being axially spaced from one another along the length of said shaft.
 4. A shredding machine as defined in claim 3 wherein the ends of at least one of said shredding blades are bent in such a way as to create a downdraft through the lower portion of said shredder drum to move shredded material away from the bottom of said drum.
 5. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising a charging chute hingedly supported near said inlet opening for directing material thereinto.
 6. A shredding machine as defined in claim 5 and further comprising a housing about said shredder drum and said shaft, the top of said housing extending over a portion of said inlet opening, a hood attached to the top of said housing and extending over a further portion of said inlet opening, and an inlet flap hingedly connected to said hood and extending over an additional portion of said inlet opening.
 7. A shredding machine as defined in claim 5 and further comprising means for selectively supporting said charging chute in a first position in which the charging chute extends downwardly from said hinged support in a ramp position and a second position in which the charging chute extends upwardly from said hinged support.
 8. A shredding machine as defined in claim 1 and further comprising a discharge conduit coupled to the bottom of said shredding drum and a collecting bag coupled to the end of said discharge conduit.
 9. A shredding machine as defined in claim 8 in combination with a horizontally elongated housing which encloses said drum and discharge conduit, wheels at one end of the housing and a loading chute at the other end of the housing.
 10. The shredding machine of claim 9 in which the said axis inclines toward the loading chute and away from the discharge conduit.
 11. A portable shredder comprising a horizontally elongated wheeled housing, an input opening at one end of the housing and a discharge opening at the other end of the housing, a shredding drum within the housing and intermediate said openings, said drum having an uppermost input opening and a lowermost discharge opening, said drum having its axis inclined at an acute angle to the horizontal whereby to dispose its input opening toward the input opening of the housing and dispose its discharge opening toward the discharge opening of the housing, a beater rotatable within said drum on an axis intersecting the inPut and discharge openings of the drum and means for impelling shredded material toward said discharge openings, said beater being spaced sufficiently from the input opening to provide a material recirculating zone in the drum above the beater.
 12. The shredder of claim 11 in which the beater includes a shaft coaxial with the drum and radially extending blades, and an annular inlet spout at the input opening of the drum and extending toward the beater.
 13. The shredder of claim 11 in which said housing is provided with an adjustable charging chute at its input opening.
 14. The shredder of claim 13 in which said charging chute has a pivotal mounting on which it is swingable between a downwardly inclined ramp position for sweeping material from ground level up into the drum and an elevated position in which it receives material delivered to it from a height above ground level.
 15. The shredder of claim 11 in which the discharge openings of the housing and drum are connected by a discharge conduit.
 16. The shredder of claim 11 in which a collection bag is releasably attached to the discharge opening. 